Being a
Southerner I grew up rather insular in my ideas of hospitality. We Southerners with our fried chicken, homemade
biscuits, and various kinds of cooked greens like to think we invented hospitality. It is likely that our ideas about hospitality
are rooted in the biblical idea of not turning away strangers for you might be
entertaining angels unawares (Heb. 13:2).
But…since growing up and having
seen a bit of the world, I've come to see that hospitality exists everywhere
and every culture has its own way of showing it. So, I can’t get too conceited about my
Southern roots.
Hindu
people have some interesting beliefs about hospitality and the ways they show
it. They're main teaching about hospitality
is what they call Athithi devo bhava
which means "the guest is God".
Treat your guests as if they were God come to visit, which means
reverently. The way they show
hospitality involves five formalities that are rooted in the way they worship
their gods. First, there is
fragrance. While receiving guests the
rooms of your house must have a pleasant smell because odour is the first thing
a person will notice and it sets the stage for the visit. A pleasant fragrance will put a guest in good
humours. Down South we use fresh coffee
and bacon to serve this purpose. Second,
there must light. You set a lamp between
yourself and your guest when at a table so that facial expressions and body
language can be clearly seen. Down
South, this is when we turn the light on in the gun cabinet. The third formality, there must be fresh fruit
and sweets made of milk; hence all the sweet shops in Hindi
neighbourhoods. The fourth formality
involves rice, which for Hindu’s is a symbol of unity. They make a red dot on the guest’s forehead
and then stick rice grains to it. In
Hindu Indian families this is the highest form of welcome. Finally, you must give flowers to your guests
when they leave so that sweet memories may linger for several days.
Welcoming
guests as if they were gods. I think this
is a very profound way of going about life and regarding other people. This teaching is very similar to what Jesus
meant when he said, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one the least of
these who are my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” We of the Christian faith should always pay
attention to how we welcome others, to how we open our lives and show
hospitality to others for it really isn’t a stretch to say that by doing so we
are showing hospitality to Jesus himself particularly when we are hospitable to
“the least of these.”
Yet, if I
might be a bit analytical here, I think we all know this. We were raised to know that showing
hospitality is a good thing especially if it’s helping others in their need. So, I don’t want to stand here this morning and
give just one more sermon on altruism in the name of Jesus. I want to prod us beyond that and get us
thinking about how we actually show hospitality to God himself, how we welcome
the presence of God into our lives.
Verse 21
here says “…welcome with meekness the implanted word which has the power to
save your souls”. James wants us to know
something profoundly transformative about ourselves. God the Father of his own will and desire has
made us to be born anew by means of the New Creation producing Word of Truth
that he spoke and continues to speak in, through, and as Jesus in the power of
the Holy Spirit. The Father by his own
choice (not ours) has spoken a new word of creation into us like the first one
he spoke that brought creation itself into being.
James goes
on to say here that God the Father spoke this Word of Jesus in such a way as to
implant it into us. God the Father has implanted
his utterly life-transforming union of God the Son and human being and flesh, which
is Jesus, into us through the gift of the Holy Spirit to us. This implanted word by the power of the Holy
Spirit, the same power by which God the Father raised Jesus from the dead is at
work in us changing us, healing us, making us to be more and more like Jesus. This word has brought us to want to know the
love of God in Jesus Christ. It has
brought us to want him in our lives. It
has brought us to faith in him. It has
brought us to want to turn from sin and hurtful ways to the ways of
compassion. It has brought us to want to
be and do want God wants us to be and do.
We wouldn’t have these God-ward desires if this Word were not implanted
in us but God’s gracious gift. It is the
good and perfect gift that comes down from above from the Father of
lights. It is the good gift and perfect gift
of God’s very self to us. Therefore, we
must receive it. Welcome it. Show it hospitality.
James here
is saying that the Christian walk is founded upon on welcoming this implanted
Word of God into our lives as we would a guest.
But there’s one thing we need to be clear on. This implanted Word to which we must show
hospitality is not in us by our own invitation, but because of the Father’s
will, the Father’s desire for us. So, we
must welcome the Word even though it is in us as a guest uninvited.
Have you
ever had to show hospitality to an uninvited guest? Imagine walking
into your kitchen and there is someone sitting there and he says he’s going to
be your guest for the rest of your life.
Try as you may you cannot get rid of him. Then he starts to tell you the truth about
yourself. He knows you better than
anyone. Then he starts telling you how
to live your life expecting that you will take his advice. That would take a heck of a lot of trust on
your part. Yet, this is how the grace of
God works in us. God speaks and implants
the Word into us. We cannot get it
through any other way.
Well, if I
may push the limits here a little more; the rest of what James has to say here
about being doers of the word rather than just hearers of it has been so
entrapped in the Reformation’s over-preoccupation with the tension between
works and faith that we don’t readily hear what James is saying, I think. James’ hearer/doer image is simply his way of
saying how we show hospitality to the Word God has implanted into us.
He’s
trying to say that it is not enough to welcome a truth-speaking guest into your
life and all you do is give him lip and ear service. It is rude to be simply a “hearer”. The word for “hearer” James uses is for
someone who sits in a place of public teaching like the synagogue or Sunday
worship listening to what is said, taking in the ideas, but doing nothing with
what they’ve heard. To be simply a
“hearer” is rude. It’s treating the
living Word as if it were another religious idea to be taken or left according
to one’s own idea of what it is to be “spiritual”.
The fact
that in Christ Jesus by the engrafting of the Holy Spirit we each are a beloved
child of God is not simply another religious idea that we can take or leave
according to our own ideas of what it is to be “spiritual”. We are in fact born anew, born from above
children of God and we share a bound of being with Jesus himself because we
share the Holy Spirit with him and this is the Father’s good and perfect gift. According to Scripture this is the reality of
our being not some religious idea.
The Christian walk is a living, communicative
relationship with and in the Trinity.
Experientially speaking, this relationship is founded upon God the
Father by the power of the Holy Spirit getting it through our thick ears and
brutally deceived minds that we are his beloved children with and in Jesus the
Son. Our work when we hear that Word is
simply to live accordingly realizing it ain’t that simple.
Speaking personally, so much of the Christian walk
for me is reminding myself and settling myself in that very Word, the implanted
Word that I am a beloved child of God and it changes the way I am. It changes the way I regard myself and the
way I regard others. It makes hospitality
to God, to myself, and to other people possible. Living in the implanted Word of Truth that we
are God’s beloved children keeps us from deceiving ourselves and getting
stained by the world. Showing
hospitality to God, receiving, welcoming the Word of Truth means doing the work
of daily, hourly, and even moment to moment reminding ourselves that we are
God’s beloved children. It is difficult
and quite similar to having to be hospitable to an uninvited guest.
Nevertheless, let us be doers of the Word and not
just hearers. Let us not look at
ourselves in a mirror and see that we are beloved children of God only to walk
away from the mirror and forget what we look like, for indeed God is making us
to look more and more like Jesus. Welcome
this Word. Amen.
